Why don't predatory ground beetles breed?

A

Acro

Cerambycidae
I was just pondering this and figured I would ask what the problem with breeding predatory ground beetles is.

I've always heard that breeding predatory ground beetles is difficult (or impossible). So what is the hard part? Getting them to breed, lay eggs, raising the larvae, or pupation? Maybe all of it?

What ground beetles have been raised from larvae to adults?

 
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Breeding carabids in a controlled environment is not necessarily easy, although there is a quite a bit of literature on the subject of raising Carabidae (from egg laying, larvae, pupation etc), and methods have been worked out for a variety of genera.

For instance:

A Method for Rearing Ground Beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae)

The Coleopterists Bulletin 30(1):33-36. Mar 1976.

By Henri Goulet

  • The methods in this paper were succesfully used to rear 80 species of 29 genera.
  • This paper doesn't cover breeding per se, but capture of gravid females, conditions for egg laying and raising larvae to adults.
Rearing Protocol and Life History Traits for Poecilus chalcites (Coleoptera: Carabidae) in the Laboratory

The Journal of Entomological Science 40(2): 126-135. 2005.

By Lundgren et al.

  • Rearing from eggs to adulthood
  • Succesful pupation around 80%
The Genus Calosoma

United States Department of Agriculture Bulletin 417, 1917.

By A.F. Burgess

  • Covers breeding/rearing aspects of Calosoma
If you Google any of these you might be able to find a free PDF somewhere. Long story short, a great number of carabid species have been raised from larvae through adulthood, though how many were truly "captive bred" vs. wild caught gravids may be a different story.

There is certainly more literature out there. Are there any species/genera in particular you are interested in?

 
Thanks for the replies you two!

There was really no specific species/genera that I was inquiring about. I was just reading a book about beetles and there was no mention of ground beetle breeding. And thinking back to other things I've read, it seemed that a rare few ever had luck from what I've seen on various invertebrate forums.

Oddly enough, I've been PMing a member and found out (today) that they are currently captive breeding one species! Soon enough breeding predatory ground beetles will become a common thing . . . I believe that is the future of beetle keeping.

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Acro said:
I was just pondering this and figured I would ask what the problem with breeding predatory ground beetles is.

I've always heard that breeding predatory ground beetles is difficult (or impossible). So what is the hard part? Getting them to breed, lay eggs, raising the larvae, or pupation? Maybe all of it?

What ground beetles have been raised from larvae to adults? Tiger beetle
Click to expand...
 
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